


An Experiment

by Twice2Ennien



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, For Science!, Short, Song Lyrics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-18
Updated: 2018-01-18
Packaged: 2019-03-06 09:07:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13407969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twice2Ennien/pseuds/Twice2Ennien
Summary: A short-lived academic collaboration between colleagues at Oasis with differing world views





	An Experiment

\---

There is a time for observation, and a time for interaction.

"Are you... looking for something, my dear?"

Fresh from some rigid academy-- but the new 'tech stands with too much confidence to be lost. She turns, frowning only slightly despite the interruption of her thoughts. The speaker's familiarity is confusing, intriguing.

"No. Thank you. Have I met you somewhere before?"

Moira grins despite herself. She rarely goes unrecognized, with her Minister's title and her hard-earned notoriety. Perhaps academic rigor has its conveniences.

"I rather doubt it. But if you've a moment to spare, I could use another opinion on a project..."

\---

A chance meeting turns to weekly lunches. Symmetra's protests at working outside her stated expertise have faded quickly, and Moira is an old hand at reframing her pitch to suit an audience. Their progress surprises them both; after decades of solitude, the harmony of effort invigorates their days.

"Why limit yourself to the power sources you have? You're building out of light, and here we are in the middle of an oasis in the desert."

The wave of a hand, elegant in its dismissal. (Was this the moment? Lounging in shadow, suffering yet another weakness, but struck by the self-determined grace of long practice, bathed in warm light and the heady smell of flora.)

"You know solar power is too inefficient for my work. In reality, even collecting a sufficient amount would take..."

The same smile plays across Moira's eyes as Symmetra moves through the conversation, her posture correct, her arguments sound, her logic bearing inevitably towards a predetermined solution.

"Don't analyse," she interrupts, enjoying the flash of outrage Symmetra buries. "That will paralyse your evolution. Suppose there were a more efficient way... suppose we change reality."

\---

Progress towards perfecting a biological power source for the hard-light constructs has been rapid. Moira is decades out of university, but caffeine sensitivity was a valuable genetic investment-- she'll sleep when she's dead.

"Nonsense. We need to rest; the work will be here when we wake up."

Symmetra is not tired. Her gaze kills the protests in Moira's throat. Rising, she extends a lean but steady hand; dark hair flies as their lips meet. Then Symmetra steps back, fighting disapproval until every inch of the lab is cleared away. Eventually, they slide into bed, and the dance continues.

\---

"This is wrong. You're killing them!"

There is a time for logic, and a time for reality. No amount of explanation or pontification on sacrifice and progress can erase the wild hurt seeping through brown eyes. Emotion fills the room like thick miasma, like the smell of rotting plants.

"And what precisely do you do with your shields and your sentries and your guns?"

\---

Moira spares no time for sentimentality, and unlike some young, proud fools she won't throw away months of work out of some sense of fragile beauty. The method for processing energy out of living things is sound, and to be quite honest it's past time the experiment grew beyond what little strength plant life can produce.

Alone, she restores her lab to its cozy clutter. 'The young are so very young,' she thinks, and 'we're all of us dying' -- but 'they will never make me die.'

Her body takes well to the treatments, and if Oasis should ever disapprove, there are plenty of other young fools out there in need of a guiding hand.

\---

Weeks later, there is no-one to see her break down over her morning tea.

**Author's Note:**

> With love for the late Dolores O'Riordan of the Cranberries. If you like Moira and/or enjoyed this work, I recommend giving "Analyse" and "Animal Instinct" a listen; the astute reader will notice I've borrowed a few turns of phrase.


End file.
